Sunday, 2 October 2011

West Indies: Will the legacy be over?

Recently when during Champions League when Trinidad & Tobago captain was asked whether in future T&T could play as a separate team he replied by saying he could see it happening it soon. Soon there were so many articles supporting the move in so many Caribbean Newspapers. These voices were the echo of same demand raised many times specially in the bigger nations of Jamaica and T&

West Indies is a combination of 10 Independent Nations, 3 British Dependencies and 2 Overseas Territories.

Independent nations

Antigua and Barbuda

Barbados

Dominica

Grenada

Guyana

Jamaica

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint
Lucia

Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

British
dependencies

Anguilla

Montserrat

British Virgin Islands

Other overseas dependencies

U.S. Virgin Islands

Sint
Maarten

A combined team has been playing since 1926 when they got test status or rather unofficially from around 1900. They were a power house during the 1970-80's when they represented the power of Black Man standing up against the White Man. Representing Windies was an honor and they produced some of the greatest cricketers ever like Kalicharan, ViV Richards, Clive Lyoyd and so many more. They were a pace and batting powerhouse and defeating West Indies in West Indies was considered as the pinnacle of cricket.

Over time with globalistation coming in had 2 effects. Firstly it brought in many more sports which started taking away the youngsters into games like Basketball, Football. Secondly with more people migrating to US or Europe, cricket was no longer taken as a game of White against Black. This meant the West Indian cap wasn't any longer lucrative. With T&T Football team then Jamaican Football team reaching the world cup then Jamaica rising in athletics, representing the nation was a really proud effect

This also had an effect on the West Indian team. The performance of team went from bad to worse. Players could be seen more dedicated to playing for T&T, Jamaica or Barbados rather than for West Indies. With champions league and T&T reaching the finals in 2009, the pride of national cap was even further raised. The dedication of players towards national cap is much higher than Windies cap which is further compunded by regular disputes between WICB and WIPA. Also allegations of regionalism in WICB has added to this woes

Now the question arises what will happen if the West Indies break up. Lets look up at the constituent nations of Windies

Sno

Country

Population

Team

GDP (M)

1

Jamaica

2825928

Jamaica

14240

2

Trinidad & Tobago

1300000

Trinidad
& Tobago

21779

3

Guyana

772298

Guyana

2215

4

Barbados

284539

Barbados

4076

5

Saint Lucia

173765

Windward

985

6

Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines

120000

Windward

640

7

Grenada

110000

Windward

720

8

US Virgin
Islands

108448

Leeward

1577

9

Antigua
& Barbuda

85632

Leeward

1106

10

Saint Martin

74852

Leeward

749

11

Dominica

72660

Windward

375

12

Saint Kitts
and Nevis

42696

Leeward

469

13

British Virgin Islands

27000

Leeward

1229

14

Anguilla

13600

Leeward

165

15

Montserrat

4655

Leeward

16

The total population of West Indies is around 6 Million. Out of these Jamaica, T&T have significant populations to make them significant and sustainable sporting powers. Passion alone cannot make great sporting teams. A population base is required to ensure constant supply of talent. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are crazy Rugby Union nations, and their teams are good, but never strong enough to be amongst the best teams in the world. This can be seen across all the team sports.

If the West Indies break up, then perhaps Jamaica and T&T will be strong enough to rise to Test Status and Guyana and Barbados can be strong enough to be top team in Tier 2. The rest of the nations will not be able to have their own national teams. Either they break on the Regional Level teams of Windward and Leeward Islands or perhaps rest of the 11 nations combine to form and continue the legacy of West Indies, though much weakened.

The International cricket would also perhaps have to realign itself. A multi Tier system most likely a 3 Tier System would be most apt in the present circumstances.

Every 4 years 2 teams should be promoted and relegated. The FTP should be formed in the same tier's however if a team wants to play against team of any other tier as per public demand, it should be left open. The ICC should be made more democratic with Tier 1 having 10 Votes, Tier 2 with 4 votes each, Tier 3 with 2 votes and rest of the 74 teams with 1 vote each. This would means that stronger team with the money have enough power to influence the game but simply cannot force decisions which are selfish for the Top Nations.

I see Windies breaking in next 5 years and hope that will force the ICC to restructuring and a more democratic structure.